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Start Date

Course Duration

Course Type

Course Fees

Last Updated

19 October 2016

Course content

Television is where most of the opportunities lie for screenwriters. Taught by a combination of academic staff and top TV scriptwriters, our students work intensively on at least two drama series currently transmitting on British television.

You'll learn how to story conference, storyline, write scripts and edit these dramas, shadowing the real life dramas as they transmit and benefit from direct input from the BBC, STV and other independent producers and writers.

You'll benefit from: -Tutoring by writers actively working in British Television. -Direct access to producers and commissioners. -The opportunity to work on dramas presently transmitting on British television. -Individual mentoring by experienced television executives on your original drama or comedy. -The chance to develop your original drama or comedy beyond the course working with a professional script reader. -Created in close collaboration with the industry to maximise employment for our graduates, we aim to produce the next generation of great television script writers.

Programme content

There are four main strands to this Masters:

Story and Script Techniques - students study story telling and narrative, genre, character and voice, developing their critical and evaluative skills as well as their creative writing talents.

Writing for Existing Long Running TV Drama - students gain understanding of how creative and writing processes work on long running dramas such as soap operas or medical dramas, and then write their own mock storylines and scripts.

Developing and Writing Original TV Drama - students tackle the challenge of creating their own original drama in the context of current commissioning trends.

Researching TV Drama Markets - students will explore the terrain of the TV fiction market, the main channels (home and abroad), commissioning policies and audiences in order to enhance their market readiness.

Through this Masters, you will gain knowledge and skills to succeeding in contemporary television drama through close exposure to the industry, some of its most successful practitioners and their professional practice in action.

However, this is more than 'skills only' training. This programme gives you space to reflect critically upon creative processes and dynamics, and upon the realities of producing work for the television industry, to become a flexible and independently minded TV scriptwriter needed for the 21st Century. In other words, our graduates not only know 'how' but also crucially 'why'.

Why choose this programme?

-Housed within Glasgow School for Business and Society, we are in an excellent position to bridge both creative development and business aware skill sets for the TV industries. -Teaching has been developed in close collaboration with the television industry, ensuring that a real workplace context and direct market relevance is maintained. We have on going input from BBC, STV and other independent producers and writers. -We focus solely on writing for the growing television sector which is a key element of the Scottish, UK and global economies. -Successful students will graduate with both a Masters degree and several projects or scripts ready to take to market. -Our learning programme is underpinned by both academic research credibility and cutting edge industry interventions. -Competitive, industry-sponsored scholarships are available for this programme. -It has the prestigious Creative Skillset Tick of approval.

Scholarships

A number of full fee scholarships supported by industry leaders are available for the most talented writers. We also offer packages of further financial support available for those who need it most.